Fantastic Dives – Raja Ampat

This week Mermaid 1 had a great mix of guests from around the world, many of them repeat guests we were very happy to welcome onboard again, and everyone was super keen to get out to the best dive sites in Raja Ampat.

We began in the north of the marine park, and kicked off with just about the best dive site possible at Cape Kri – the famous resident school of sweetlips were there at the beginning of the dive to welcome us!  We had multiple wobbegong sightings at other sites in the north, as well as a few manta sightings at Kawe’s awesome sites, and our guests were all mesmerised by the beauty of the blue water mangroves at Yangefo. The jetty dive at Airborek island was astounding as we were immersed in a dense school of silversides as the afternoon sunlight trickled down from above, and here one of our dive guides found rare Pontohi and Severns pygmy seahorses. A critter-packed night dive at Sapokreng was one of the highlights on this trip, where we found many species of cephalopods such as algae octopus, pygmy squid, and coconut octopus.

In the south around Misool, we were blessed with some great visibility at most of the dive sites. Among the infinite colourful sea fans, our guests got to photograph more pygmy seahorses, including the ‘Santa Claus’ pygmy found only in Raja Ampat. On the night dives here we also saw the endemic Raja Ampat walking shark!

With beaming smiles all round, Mermaid 1 headed back to Sorong – ready to head off again on another great adventure!

Mermaid I, Raja Ampat
March 7-16, 2018

Christian Loader